Creatbot F430 Industrial 3D Printer Overview

Let's start, as usual, from afar. Back in 2011, like the first sprouts after a fertile rain, many and many enthusiasts, developers, and entire companies began to appear in the unploughed field of engineering prototyping to produce and invent 3D printers.

Additive manufacturing was rearing its head. It was developing rapidly. And by 2014, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of printer models around the world, and the market began to divide in directions and technologies, and now and then it pushed adherents of different approaches and trends against each other in a competitive struggle.

The most popular and accessible segment of this market, became FDM 3D-printing as the most balanced in terms of cost of product development / cost of parts and materials. However, quite quickly, the pioneers of this technology were stumped by the technical characteristics of the materials available at the time. PLA and ABS plastics ceased to meet the requirements of demanding design bureaus and matured at that time, already professional makers. Thus high-temperature FDM 3D-printing appeared. FDM printing with composite and wear-resistant materials.

Most of them, as it's not hard to guess, were borrowed from the big brothers, the company giants Stratasys and 3D Systems. Well a little later, on the horizon appeared such well-known names as Markforged and the like.

The main distinguishing feature of the products of these companies were 3D-printers with the ability to print super strong and heat-resistant materials previously inaccessible to 3D-printing enthusiasts - PEEK and ULTEM like polymers and composites. At the same time, the cost of such equipment was already affordable for small hackerspaces around the world, or for Zmit's in Russia.

Today we want to tell you about a manufacturer that appeared in the field of vision back in those, distant years, and by today has managed to prove itself as a reliable and skilled manufacturer of professional high-temperature 3D printers. But until now, it's still kind of in the shadows. Who would have thought that such a player would come from China? Let's bring it into the light.

So. Today we're going to talk about the CreatBot F430 printer from Henan-based manufacturing company CreatBot.

Introduction

The history of Henan Suwei Electronic Technology Ltd., which owns CreatBot trademark has more than 7 years of successful and sustainable development both in the domestic market of China and export sales. In less than 6 years the brand has become one of the largest and most demanded 3D printer manufacturers in central China, it has acquired more than 10 patents from different certification organizations and signed contracts for the supply of products from more than 60 countries. The product line of the company already has 4 generations of printers, among which are compact home solutions, as well as metal giants, such as CreatBot D600 (introductory review, which we did earlier).

So let's move directly to the birthday boy: CreatBot F430.

First acquaintance

First, let's note the shipping carton. The printer is shipped in a box of thin plywood with metal locks. There is foam inside, and the printer and important elements, as well as accessories, are wrapped in stretch film.

Going to long distances such equipment is usually trimmed. In this case a standard box was enough. We unbend the upper locks, carefully lift the lid, and voila. The printer is now visible. Let's get acquainted with the contents, what do the Chinese brothers pack for this kind of equipment?

Package:

The list of standard items is not so big, but all the necessary tools are present. This is already good.

In the set:

• Open-end wrenches, 4 pcs.
• Hexagonal keys, 2 pcs.
• Phillips-head screwdriver, 1 pc.
• Spatula, 1 pc.
• USB 1.0 to USB 2.0 cord, 1 pc.
• Painting tape (as adhesive), 1 pc.
• Tweezers, 1 pc.
• Needle for cleaning nozzles, 1 pc.
• Clip for securing the table, 1 pc.
• Spare parts, heater, fuse, feeder spring, driver with heatsink and door hinge.
• In addition the set includes - two hotplates for printing with soft plastics (with teflon). And for the PEEK Version - two pads for printing with high-temperature plastics such as PEEK (of course, Teflon is not involved).

First impressions and appearance:

Decent, professional machine. No feelings other than respect such metal machine should not cause, and just can not. The gray powder coating that has become a nuisance in other Chinese units, looks quite different here. The weight of the printer is impressive. It is problematic, if not impossible, to carry it from one place to another. And this is a plus, because machines of this level must not be transported around exhibitions and children's parties for the amusement of the public. To stand at the head, on the place of honor of the machines engineer and lead the production process, this is the fate of such 3D printers.

 

Let's look at Creatbot F430 in details.

On the front side of the printer, exactly in the center, we see a large window for loading/unloading of material and finished products, made in the form of a rather nice door. The door is fixed with magnets, fixed to the body with plastic hinges. It opens easily, does not squeak, does not open during printing.

Just below, on the left, there is a label with the name of the model of the 3D printer - Creatbot F430. Under it is the on/off button for the machine.

Strictly perpendicular to it, on the right there is a notch with LED indication, there is also a USB 2.0 connector for starting offline printing (without a computer).

On the right and left walls we also see quite large viewing windows, which can be optionally closed with the included walls.

In the "Basement" on the right, there is a USB 1.0 connector for pairing the CreatBot with a computer or laptop.

There are no other connectors, not counting the network cable connector on the back side of the printer. On the back there are also the ventilation grates of the convection system for maintaining the working temperature in the chamber. Inside them there are HEPA filters.

Moreover, there are special handles on the top of the case for more convenient transportation.

The most interesting part of the exterior is the interface to control the 3D printer, or just - display. He himself, is a color, full-featured, not Russified display. On its functions, we will describe in more detail later.

To the left of the window display, is the name of the manufacturer, carved into the body and highlighted by a LED strip.

At the top is the top cover of the print compartment.

Specifications:

Printing area: 400x300x300 mm;

Number of nozzles: 2;

Nozzle Diameter: 0.4 mm (0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0 mm - optional);

Minimum thickness of the layer: 0.02 mm;

Print resolution: 0.04 mm;

Z-axis positioning accuracy: 0.00125 mm;

XY axis positioning accuracy: 0.0127 mm;

Printing speed: 55 mm/sec;

Maximum printing speed: 180 mm / s;

Travel speed: 200 mm/s;

Nozzle temperature: Max. 420 degrees;

Table heating temperature: max. 100 degrees;

Print chamber temperature: 70 degrees;

Filament materials: PLA, ABS, Carbon Fiber, Wood, Nylon, PC, PETG, HIPS, PP, Flexible, TPU, PVA, PEEK, etc;

Filament diameter: 1.75mm (2.85mm is optional);

Platform OS: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, OSX;

Language: English, multilingual;

Software: Multilingual version of CreatBot;

Interface: USB;

Ability to print offline from a USB Disk;

Print file format: GCO, GCode;

Supported data format: STL, OBJ, AMF;

Control chip: ATmega 2560;

LCD Size: 4.3" (monochrome multilingual);

Power supply: 110 ~ 220V 300W;

Dimensions: 660*470*580 mm;

Weight: 43kg;

Warranty: 1 year.

 

Kinematics :

The printer's kinematic circuitry is familiar. It is used in a huge number of CNC machines and 3D-printers "gantry" scheme (one motor per axis), it is also "plotter", it is XY Head, Z Bed. Robust rails on the sides and on the "gantry" itself.

 

 

Double-screw table. Shielded X-axis motor with additional cooling. Hidden behind the inner metal bulkhead, the Y-axis motor.

 

 

One look at all of this is enough to understand that PLA elephants are just a dabble. This printer was designed for much more impressive loads.

The strap retainers are very interesting. We have not seen this way of clamping yet in any other printer. I wonder what was the reason for this mechanism? If you are an expert, please give your opinion in the comments, it will be interesting to discuss (note by author).

The table is driven by one motor in the "basement" of the printer, through one long belt to both pulleys of the ballscrew. The idler pulley is centered on the platform and is adjustable in tension. The base of the table is fairly thick, tinted glass.

 

If conventional plastics are to be used, standard adhesives, glue or tape are applied to it. If the delivery set involves printing PEEK and Ultem, a special adhesive surface is supplied.

It looks reminiscent of carbon.

The table calibration is a classic "four screws". This type of alignment is used in almost all professional and amateur 3D printers.

 

Of course, if we are not talking about a motorized auto-leveler. However, here, the engineering thought of the developers from the Celestial Empire smoothed the corners by adding a magnetic solenoid to the printing unit, which acts as a Z-axis end cap and helps to remove the height map from the table. A kind of auto-calibration.

Maximum printing speed on 0.4 nozzles, about 75 - 80 mm/sec. Travel speed 120 - 150. All the same, the two-head printing unit is quite heavy and to accelerate the printer above the recommended speeds is fraught, at least, with a deterioration in print quality.

Material Feed System

 

Material rolls are installed in special compartments on the printer enclosure. They are only accessible from the back. This is not always convenient.

 

The coils are fully insulated with external flaps on magnets, and are blown through by a convection system through ventilation grilles on the inside.

Two nozzles, two hotplates, two motors. Direct extrusion. The hotend is short, like in "little brothers", PP3DP (Tiertime) or Zortrax. This layout suggests a focus on high-temperature materials. The cutoff limit to the Cold End is minimal. The role of the radiator is performed by a large, milled feeder housing. Fans of forced blowing are located inside of it.

The thickness of carriage mounting and competent wiring of heaters is pleasant - away from the front window. This at least provides a uniform temperature gradient at the nozzle itself and does not affect the heater block of the hot rod, which indicates a carefully thought-out design of the node.

Many classmates of Creatbot F430, we will not name them to avoid misunderstandings, have ordinary e3d V5, absolutely not designed for printing not only PEEK, but even hardly digesting polycarbonate and ABS+/MAX. Although the manufacturer boldly claims a heating threshold of 300 and even 400 degrees. In contrast to this example, CreatBot F430 is responsible for the marketing slogans of its manufacturer, which can be seen even by the approach to design, as we noted above.

Calibrating the position of the nozzles relative to each other is standard for CreatBot printers. We tighten the screw on the first extruder, the carriage goes up and the nozzle is bent. Tighten the screw on the second extruder, and the carriage aligns and pulls the nozzle with it. Calibration time is 5 to 10 minutes. There is no need to measure the X offset. The P.O. of the printer already has the correct distance in the settings.

The feeder has the ability to adjust the hold down, there is an adjustment screw on each side of the print unit. The presser itself is designed with a toothed pulley and a presser bearing on a movable arm. The thread diameter is standard for these machines - 1.75 mm.

Stepper motors of size Nema 17, but thinner and thus lighter. Behind the tractor mechanism and the motors is an electronic compartment of the printing unit, as well as the flat ribbon of "laptop" type, which goes from it.

Electrics and electronics

The cable management in the working chamber is excellent. The wires are either tucked into the braids or hidden in the cable ducts of the casing. Only the control cable of the printing unit, the power cable of the table heater, and the wiring of the stepper motor of the X axis stick out into the chamber.

Heating elements and temperature sensors of printing unit allow heating the board up to 350 - 400 degrees Celsius. The heater for the heating table is a silicone heating pad. Since its voltage is high, the cross section of the heating pad wires is oversized. It is connected directly to the socket on printer's motherboard, that is connected to the power relay on the right side of the socket.

The fans for the cold zone on the print block, the model air cooler, the stepper motors, and the Z-axis sensor (magnetic Z-sample BL TOuch, from Antclabs) are wired to an intermediate board.

The stub from this board is hidden in a braid and runs down the back wall into the "basement" to a connector on the printer's motherboard. This type of stub will last much longer than ordinary bundled copper or aluminum wires. In addition, it has a higher operating temperature, which is undoubtedly important when working with high-temperature materials.

As we noted earlier, the X-axis stepper is equipped with an additional cooling fan because it can experience overload.

The bottom of the working chamber has convector fans and heating elements with large aluminum radiators. This is the temperature maintenance system in the chamber.

The LED indication panel on the printer body reflects the operation of the printing unit heaters, the table as well as the USB flash drive.

The motherboard and all electronic elements are made by the factory. The well-known Arduino 2560 acts as a controller. The stepper motor drivers and the board layout are standard. Interesting is the presence of blanks for Wi-fi and the output of certain functions, like controlling the Z limit switch on a separate board. To identify the display, alas, could not. There are no markings or part numbers on the board.

The F430 has a system to resume printing after an emergency stop. In one of the pictures of the electronics compartment you can see a set of quite powerful capacitors and the power control board.

This system allows current coordinates and job parameters to be stored in the printer's internal memory even if the power cord is unexpectedly unplugged. The printer will immediately pause and go into sleep mode. Once power is restored, printing can continue.

Most of the stubs are flat. Bars of thin Chinese wires are absent at all, which became typical for RepRap'ers. The reliability of this unit is absolutely all right.

Connection interfaces and display.

There are only two connection interfaces. USB 1.0 for direct connection to a laptop / PC, USB 2.0 for flash memory cards. There is no possibility to connect via Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The display is a full-featured, color, touch screen with a pretty nice UI, made in gray and blue colors. The display allows you to control all the necessary functions of the printer, loading and unloading material, setting the temperature of the extruders and the platform, axis movement, etc. In short, the standard "gentleman's kit". During printing, the current system status menu is called up by a special key on the screen; by default, the printer will show only the job completion percentage and a menu of shortcuts to basic functions.

 

The system itself, as a whole, is implemented quite unusually, but has all the functionality inherent in the well-tuned Marlin firmware. Right up to changing EEPROM parameters "on the fly". The display firmware as well as the motherboard firmware versions are updated with a good regularity and it is possible that some functions will change or new ones will be added in the future.

Software

The software is a little modified Cura. In the manufacturer's version it is called CreatWare. It differs by the changed layout of the tabs in the advanced settings window, the presence of preset parameters of printers from the plant line and a nice, branded 3D model of the desktop. In all other respects, "a good man to teach is only to spoil."

Print Examples

Conclusions

This 3D printer is designed for production tasks of printing large size models. The quality design and ease of use allow you to operate CreatBot F430 in 24/7 mode. The assembly quality of the 3D-printer is factory-made. All the nodes of the 3D-printer are made of quality components. The essential advantages of CreatBot F430 are:

The possibility of heating the extruder up to 400 degrees (in PEEK modification).

Reliable and precise kinematic scheme

The presence of 2 extruders in the base.

Factory assembled